Features Region: South America

The legal department might have run like clockwork when, at just 32, Sofia Zuloaga joined the South American arm of professional services giant Aon, the first woman to manage the legal functions of a subregion that includes Argentina, Chile and Peru. But Zuloaga wanted the department to be about more than just cold efficiency. For […]

In a way, Sofia Almeida Montero’s career started with a lie—however white and well-intentioned. When she was 18, Almeida arrived at what would be her “alma mater” to take what she thought was a pre-university political science test. After notching one of the highest scores in her class, Almeida soon discovered she’d instead been enrolled […]

It’s a long stretch from his office in Santiago, Chile, to Quito, Ecuador–over 2,350 miles to the north. But Ricardo Muza, legal director of Pfizer’s Andean Region for the past seven years, has a way of finding common ground between the operations of those far-apart locations as well as in the other three countries in […]

When you think of happy, carefree professionals, lawyers might be the last people who come to mind. Spend any time in Jose Pedro Urrutia’s legal department, however, and you’ll quickly realize it is possible for lawyers to love what they do—and where they work. He’s even found a word for his approach, inspired by a […]

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve met a CEO or two. The same goes for general counsels. Even if you haven’t met any, you know about them. Seeing someone wear both hats at once? You might’ve just found a corporate unicorn. Only, you needn’t scour some ethereal forest to find Alvaro Martinez. He’s out […]

The trademark of a successful corporate lawyer? It’s not just legal and business savvy, answers Carlos Landazabal Angeli, who, since November 2012, has served as General Electric’s legal leader for South America’s Andean region, as well as Central America and the Caribbean. Anticipation is just as important, the soft-spoken general counsel tells Vanguard from his […]

One thing you learn to love about the land is how it never changes. Or anyway it won’t change much in the lifecycle of a drilling rig and its human operators. Here, in the energy industry, the land is as close to a constant as it gets. But people—whether individually or as part of a […]